58 days to go now. Things have kind of slowed down a bit at the moment. Most things are organised that needed to be organised like flights, eurail ticket, mud map etc. Now its just a waiting game. I’m still scouting out hostels but mostly just to see whats out there. By the time I actually book I would say it will be somewhere completely different to the hostels I had on my list depending on availability.

I still feel my interest getting peeked when I read about or hear about a place thats not currently on my list. I can’t really add any extras and I’ve probably got too many on my list at the moment but it really is just a plan at this point. Nothing is set in stone. I’ll arrive in London, and following a well deserved sleep, will see where the wind takes me. Thats the most important thing I wanted this trip to be about. Its about me and what I want to do!

I did read some very useful info on Rome and when to go to the Vatican and other busy attractions. Over at http://www.roninrome.com/ his blog has been very informative and made me feel a little more prepared for the chaos that is Rome. Can’t wait!

I’m currently watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand (awesome show) too which has got me all excited for Rome again.

Athens is another city I’m looking forward to seeing. Not so much for modern era Athens but for the ancient ruins that are the main attractions. Seeing the Acropolis is going to be something to remember. I’ll be there for a few days so I think I might try including a day trip outside of the city to explore more of the ancient Greek civilization.

I’ve found that typing ‘Things to do in *insert city name here*’ in Google has been a very handy way of finding out what there is (and what there isn’t in some cases) to see in the cities I’ll be visiting. Even more handy is ‘Free Things to do in *insert city name here*’!

So amongst all my planning for the trip I realised how different technology wise this trip will be compared to my last trip 4 years ago.

Back then I took a mobile phone, a digital camera, and my ipod. Which is not exactly roughing it but this time around I’ll have a smartphone with internet, wifi, camera, music, video, and application abilities, a very portable netbook, and a digital camera. Same amount of devices but much more convergence and functionality than last time.

I don’t need to take my ipod this time as I can play and listen to the same music on my phone. I can store huge amounts of data and access the internet through wifi with my netbook, and back up my photos from the camera too.

Even though the phone has a built in camera I’ll still be using a standalone. Thats one area of convergence that they haven’t gotten quite right yet, but they’re getting closer.

Who knows what I’ll be taking on my next trip.

I’ve grabbed a fantastic app called NaviComputer for my phone. Its only available for Windows Mobile 6.x phones but it enables you to download and save maps onto your phone so that you don’t need to be connected to the internet to view them. Considering the cost of mobile 3G data roaming across Europe this app will be very handy. It will even show you your location if you have a built in GPS receiver. Check it out at http://navicomputer.com/

So only 65 days to go now. Things are really starting to come together!